Food delivery boxes are for the anxious home cooks: the people who will watch cooking shows all day, but would never dream of trying to replicate those skills.

Heather Comparetto / The Penny Hoarder

So brush your anxieties aside and order up a box when one or more of these situations arises:

You’re crazy-busy at work this quarter, but bored with takeout

You’ve got a new beau and don’t want them to know that you sometimes eat cereal for dinner

You want to level-up your cooking skills without a big time investment

Read on for my experience as The Penny Hoarder’s very own home chef. I’m happy to report I received zero complaints from the dining room.

A note about our price comparison: We noted the ingredients for each recipe and researched the cost of comparable ingredients at national retailers, such as Walmart.

For example, our Blue Apron recipe came with one tablespoon of honey. When we checked Walmart’s price, we found the smallest size of honey we could get was an 8 ounce jar for $1.98 – 24.8 cents per ounce, to be precise. Since a tablespoon is half a fluid ounce, we used 12 cents worth of honey in this recipe.

Our price comparison does not include the cost of staple items or cooking aids each box expected you to have available at home, including items like olive oil, salt and pepper, and aluminum foil.

Plated vs. Blue Apron vs. Hello Fresh vs. Marley Spoon

Usually costs: About $60 for three meals with two servings each per week

What the ingredients would have cost for this meal: $7.80 ($3.90 per serving)

Listed cooking time: 45-55 minutes

Time it really took: 1 hour, 13 minutes

Top Chef winner Brooke Williamson contributed this recipe to Blue Apron’s Guest Chef Series, adding an extra layer of intimidation as I pulled a small pork roast out of the box.

The photos and instructions for searing, then roasting the pork were surprisingly easy to follow — even if I approached the seasoning process a bit hesitantly. (The instructions said to season the pork, but my co-worker crew was not satisfied. They made sure I rubbed those spices in.)

The final dish was savory, sweet, and looked impressive when sliced and plated.

Order it when: You want your sweetheart to swoon over your cooking prowess. I felt like a pro putting this dish together.

How to make the deal even sweeter:When you sign up, you'll get $30 off your first order.

We tried: Garlic Braised Chicken with Greens & Creamy GritsUsually costs: $48 for two meals with two servings each per week

What the ingredients would have cost for this meal: $6.55 ($3.28 per serving)

Listed cooking time: 40 minutes

Time it really took: 1 hour, 16 minutes

Let me just admit I messed up this recipe, big time.

The instructions said to trim excess fat and skin from the chicken breasts, which I took to mean “rip all the skin off with gusto.” A few sentences later, I learned that I should “add chicken skin-side down and cook until browned.”

Lesson: Always read the recipe card twice before you start, instead of skimming over the bold words while you unpack the box.

I had major doubts when I was working on this recipe from Martha Stewart’s meal-delivery company. I don’t love kale, I don’t love grits, and the photos on the recipe card looked a little less than appetizing.

But the result? It was so good, I made myself a leftover plate to take home (and then hid it from my co-workers). I probably should have known a Martha-approved recipe would be delicious.

Order it when: Your parents are coming to visit and you (still) need to convince them you’re an adult.

Lisa Rowan is a writer and producer at The Penny Hoarder. Editorial intern Jennifer Smith did the legwork at Walmart and crunched the ingredient numbers.